The interviewer is sitting in his chair with a half-eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwich beside him.
As he stands up to greet you he says, “Whoa! Careful! You just walked through an invisible concrete wall!” This is a situation of which you were totally unprepared. Why? Because this never happens.
It’s unprofessional and extremely immature behavior, something totally unacceptable in today’s workplace. This is something you’d expect from a 4-year old. I know this because that’s where the idea came from.One of my friends is a single mother of a 2-year old girl and a 4-year old son. He has an incredible imagination. “Okay Erik, you are Lion-O from the Thundercats, and you find me in the snow.”
“What are you doing in the snow?”
“I’m sleeping.”
“Why are you sleeping in the snow?”
“I’m tired. Now you make me a Thundercat, and we search for the sword of Omens. That’s Snarf.”
“Your sister is Snarf?”
“No, Snarf’s a boy.”
“Oh.”
“Hey, watch for the lava Lionel!”
“But you just walked through it.”
“Yeah, but I have lava-proof skin.”
“Oh.”
We later fought Mumm-Ra and lost, but it really was a lot of fun despite the fact that I’m 21 and shouldn’t act like that.
That’s when I started thinking about how much I’ve grown.
I’ve almost forgotten about this imaginary world that used to surround me as a kid, where my brother and I could be part of the Voltron team or cruise in the Mystery Machine with Scoob and Shaggy.
Now my life is all about professionalism, career orientation, goal-setting and such. But that’s okay — right? I can’t escape it, so it has to be right, but I think society takes maturity too seriously these days.
I’m not saying we should all be fighting invisible ninjas in the break room with lasers, I just think it should be okay to wear the occasional Superman T-shirt to work instead of the normal suit and tie.
But, wait a minute, how can a company be taken seriously if it’s employees are wearing street clothes to work? It can’t in today’s world.
That’s why I’ll never be able to take my own advice. Everyone’s out to impress the next man up or the potential client — leaving no room to express the inner child.
We’re so scared these days of coming across as immature that we’ve totally forgotten some of the greatest assets of immaturity.
There are no worries, abundant imagination, naivete, curiosity, open-mindedness and limited inhibitions.
Everyone needs a little of that now and then, especially in the work environment, if only just enough to keep life from being an endless string of numbers, charts, ties, meetings, and memos.
If you need an example, look at the few professions where this is OK like software design, advertising, and all those scientists dedicating their lives to space exploration.
In the latter case, they’re still searching for aliens, trying to prove there’s more to life than what you can see, using lasers for whatever they can, and when we sent that rover to Mars they stared at monitors for days just naming any rock bigger than a bread box.
Learn from these people and most importantly, kids. Life’s about more than you can see or gossip about, so let’s stop trying to pretend it’s not.
Bring PB&J sack lunches to work with gummy worms for dessert, sing in the shower, drink everything (except maybe beer) through straws, watch cartoons, finger paint, and write down your craziest dreams and daydreams.
They could be telling you to lighten up, so says Lion-O.
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